In reply to a post by adebov:

In reply to a post by Andrue:

Do they really mean that, though?

Yes; quite a few smaller exchanges are cropping up on the list as being served by a neighbouring exchange (Blewbury, for example, is down as served from Didcot).
James (earlier) mentioned Saddleworth as being served from Oldham.

*Sniff* I feel small now. Quite a bizarre turn around compared to LLU. And there was me thinking Brackley got some fresh backhaul and had oodles of capacity :-/

Yep. What happened in Saddleworth, is that they basically extended the reach from the Oldham exchange to the Saddleworth cabs.

So, if you think about each exchange, there is a crossover point where the cabs start to be fed by a different exchange (for copper). So, all BT have to do, is blow the fibre a bit further, between the junction of the last cab on one exchange, to the next closest cab on the next exchange and then onwards from there to each cab thereafter.

In our case, this is definitely true, because the first 4 cabs in Saddleworth are now enabled for FTTC, and those 4 cabs are the closest ones to the edge of where the last Oldham cabinet is... if that makes sense?

I'm not sure if this is sharing capacity on the same fibre cables from the last cab on the serving exchange? Something to think about I guess.

Edited by deleted (Mon 12-Sep-11 20:33:30)

It could be the way of the future.
If/when a full FTTP roll-out happens, I can see a lot of smaller exchanges being closed down.

It could also be BT trying to find a use for the oodles of space they've got inside the Banbury exchange (given it was a main switching centre, when built circa 1975, it must have masses of empty space, now all the equipment is considerably smaller some 35 to 40 years after the exchange was designed).

Still needed for Voice though... so I can't see any exchanges being closed anytime in the future. Eventually of course it will happen

Mar-12

yay

lets hope BE has a product out by then.

Edited by epyon (Mon 12-Sep-11 20:36:28)

In reply to a post by Adsl24:

Eventually of course it will happen

I didn't mean short-term , but (you're right) eventually everything will go fibre, and that's when BT will be able to seriously cut back on the number of exchanges.
Who knows?

Perhaps so

Occasionally in my BT days I'd have worked in Knock exchange in Belfast and while not a particularly large exchange, most of it was sitting empty. Apart from a few distribution frames and some ISDN and ADSL equipment there wasn't a lot happening.

Particularly fun was some old filing cabinets that had old engineer handbooks and the like in them...definitely world war era.

To give an idea (of the size of our exchange) I've found a flickr photo showing it (the large four level beige building) opposite a four-deck multi-storey car park (photo was taken from the top of the main multi-storey, which is about 6 or 7 levels).

I can't imagine the exchange is that full these days.

Edited by adebov (Mon 12-Sep-11 20:52:05)

Similar here.

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=southwell+road+bango...

The red brick building is the original exchange. The concrete monstrosity next door is the "extension".

In reply to a post by Adsl24:

So, if you think about each exchange, there is a crossover point where the cabs start to be fed by a different exchange (for copper). So, all BT have to do, is blow the fibre a bit further, between the junction of the last cab on one exchange, to the next closest cab on the next exchange and then onwards from there to each cab thereafter.

Here its really strange, the Aldershot exchange (bigger town) is getting FTTC from Farnborough ? Camberley, over 7 miles away getting FTTC from Farnborough? Errr....? Why? These are exchanges that have higher line counts than Farnborough and are bigger towns; they both had LLU suppliers long before we did.

Also annoying... where's my cab :-/